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Joel Zimmerman
Joel Thomas Zimmerman, better known by his stage name deadmau5, is a Canadian electronic musician and producer from Toronto, Ontario. Zimmerman produces a wide variety of styles within the house genre and other forms of electronic music. Zimmerman is known to have worked alongside other producers, such as Kaskade, Chris Lake, Wolfgang Gartner, and ATTLAS. He is even a member of some bands, such as BSOD and WTF?. Early life Zimmerman was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario on January 5th, 1981. His mother Nancy Zimmerman is a visual artist, while his father Rodney Zimmerman is a General Motors plant worker. He is the middle sibling between his older sister Jennifer, and his younger brother Chris. His ancestry includes German, Swiss, and English roots. Zimmerman proceeded to graduate from Westlane Secondary School. His career in music began during the mid 1990s, which started with him making small chip tunes, until evolving to have trance and IDM influenced sound. In late 2012, a very old demo track by Zimmerman from 1995 titled "Can't Remember The Name" resurfaced onto YouTube. He confirmed this was the first track he ever produced, but also stated it never saw an official release. Career '1998-2006: Get Scraped' The vinyl pressed single "I Don't Want No Other" released under Dred And Karma was Zimmerman's first official release in 1999. The first remix he ever made was a remix of a song by the small band called Revenge of the Egg People, titled "I'm Electric". The remix was released in 2002. Deadmau5 released his debut studio album, Get Scraped on July 26th, 2005 under the independent record label ZOOLOOK. The demos "Just Before 8bit"', "Nice Try, Kiddo" and "Uploading and Downloading" from Project 56 were finished and released on the new album. "Bored of Canada", "Intelsat" and "I Forget" reappear on the album, along with "The Oshawa Connection" from deadmau5 Circa 1998-2002. In 2006, he released his second studio album "Vexillology" under Play Records. The album title is named after the study of flags. This album was the first to include Zimmerman's signature house and techno influenced sound. The self-released compilation albums, Project 56, deadmau5 Circa 1998-2002, and A Little Oblique, were completed in 2006. Project 56 '' eventually got an official release in February of 2008. '2007–2008: Random Album Title' In 2007, Zimmerman decided to begin his own record label named Mau5trap, which released ''Random Album Title in 2008, along with Ultra Records and Ministry of Sound. Random Album Title was digitally released in September 2008 via Ultra Records in the United States, and Ministry of Sound in the United Kingdom and Europe. Physical copies of the album were released in November 2008. During 2008, Zimmerman left Play Records. However, due to his contract agreement, Play Records was able to claim ownership of tracks he had made during the time he was signed to the record label. This led to the release of the At Play series. '2009–2011: For Lack of a Better Name and 4x4=12' Deadmau5 released his fourth studio album For Lack of a Better Name in the United States on September 22nd, 2009, and on October 5th internationally. During a tour in the fall of 2009, performances were recorded and were instantly made for sale after the concerts on USB wristband flash drives. For Lack of a Better Name contains two of Zimmerman's most popular songs, "Ghosts 'n' Stuff" and "Strobe". Zimmerman was the house DJ for the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards and MTV PUSH artist of the week on August 16th, 2010. He expressed his gratitude towards Lady Gaga and David Guetta for bringing house music into the pop scene and paving the way for him to the mainstream. At the awards, Zimmerman performed with Jason Derulo and Travie McCoy. His fifth studio album, titled 4x4=12, was released on December 6th, 2010 in the United Kingdom and December 7t, 2010 in the United States. The singles "Some Chords", "Animal Rights", "Sofi Needs a Ladder" had been released and featured on the album, along with "Raise Your Weapon", which released in 2011 as a single. "Some Chords" was featured on an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation where Zimmerman made a cameo appearance. '2011–2012: >album title goes here<' On August 9th, 2012, Zimmerman announced his upcoming sixth studio album, [[Album Title Goes Here| >Album Title Goes Here<]], which was released on September 24th of the same year. In December 2012, FUSE TV named "Professional Griefers" one of the top 40 songs of 2012. '2013–14: while(1<2)' In November of 2013, Zimmerman deleted three years worth of music from his SoundCloud account, replacing them with the ''7 EP''. These tracks were named after the Latin translations for the Seven Deadly Sins: "Acedia", "Avaritia", "Gula", "Invidia", "Ira", "Luxuria", and "Superbia". Also during November of 2013, Zimmerman became signed to Astralwerks, a record label that is solely based on electronic music. Zimmerman admitted, "I found a place that knows what to do with my music." when speaking about the partnership. On January 7th, 2014, Zimmerman announced on his Twitter account that his highly anticipated seventh studio album is complete. "In other news...i finished my album today, 2 discs. 2 continuous mixes. 25 tracks. and something im proud of." On May 10th, 2014, deadmau5 announced through live.deadmau5.com that his upcoming album will be titled while(1<2) and that it will be released on June 17th, 2014. The album was preceded by the release of four singles: "Avaritia", "Seeya" (featuring Colleen D'Agostino), "Infra Turbo Pigcart Racer" and "Phantoms Can't Hang". Starting on the week of May 20th, 2014, each single was released weekly until the release of the album. '2015-2016:W:/2016ALBUM/' On December 2nd, 2016, deadmau5 released his eighth studio album, ''W:/2016ALBUM/'', which referred to the location of the album on his computer. The album consists of tracks produced with a Prophet 10, a synth Zimmerman said to have purchased prior to the album being released. The album also includes tracks he had been working on since 2015. He also announced at the end of 2016 that he will be releasing a project containing tracks he produced in the late 90s/early 2000s. This turned out to be Stuff I Used To Do, which was released on March 3rd, 2017. '2017–present' On March 25th, 2017, Zimmerman began a tour called "Lots of Shows in a Row" with his new Cube 2.1 stage to promote W:/2016ALBUM/. He started touring in North America for two months and then the rest of the world until it ended on October 31st. On September 24th, Zimmerman confirmed via Twitter that his next album is in the works. Personal life In 2010, he adopted a cat which he named Meowingtons. The cat has become a trademark to a lot of deadmau5 related work. Zimmerman named his 2011 world tour "Meowingtons Hax Tour" after his cat, and even putting his face on the cover of his sixth studio album. Zimmerman then collaborated with Sol Republic to create a brand of headphones inspired by Meowingtons. In 2017, a preview of the animated project Meowingtons & Mau5 was shown via a livestream. In 2018, deadmau5 also adopted n00bthecat. Zimmerman began dating Lindsey Evans shortly after meeting her at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards in September 2010. Evans eventually moved to Toronto to live with him for a while. However, one year later Zimmerman announced that the two had broken up. In September of 2012, Zimmerman began dating Kat Von D. After breaking up in November 2012, they shortly rekindled their relationship. On December 15, 2012, Zimmerman proposed to Von D on Twitter, and they announced that they would marry in August of 2013 with an aquatic-themed wedding. They both have gotten several matching tattoos, including the numbers "289m3d22h" on both of their arms, as well as two black stars underneath their eyes. Zimmerman moved to Los Angeles to live with Von D. In June 2013, Von D announced that they had ended their engagement. In 2015, he purchased a multi million dollar mansion in Milton, Ontario, Canada. He claims to have had to build a giant connection tower along with the house, due to area he lived in being an area with little to no internet connection. On August 12th, 2017, Zimmerman got married to his fiancée Kelly Fedoni. Origin of "deadmau5" The story begins when Zimmerman was chatting with a friend on his computer, until it unexpectedly shut off. Zimmerman then started to take apart his computer and happened to find a dead mouse within it. Zimmerman then became known as the "dead mouse guy" among his friends. He tried to switch his name to "Deadmouse" in an online chat room, but it was too long, so he shortened it to "deadmau5". Deadmau5 created the logo known as the "mau5head" while learning how to use 3D modelling software. The logo appears in many different designs, and has been shown on the cover of most of Zimmerman's albums, with the exceptions of At Play and Vexillology(until their re-release). He was given the idea to wear a helmet based on the logo by one of his friends, Jay Gordon. In an interview with CBC Television, Zimmerman stated that he wants his logo to be an "icon". Fans often attend Deadmau5 concerts sporting their own copy of the mau5head. He first performed on stage with a mau5head in January of 2008 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He created "deadmau5.com" and began uploading songs to SectionZ and producing under the alias "deadmau5" in 2002. Trivia *Zimmerman is fond of video games, and some of his favorites include Final Fantasy X, Minecraft, and The Legend of Zelda. *Zimmerman has some conflicted feelings about his past works, including collaborations with Melleefresh, "Raise Your Weapon", and W:/2016ALBUM/. *Zimmerman used to have a blog. However, it hasn't been active since 2011. *Zimmerman is not a fan of being interviewed, as he believes they are repetitive. *Zimmerman does not like being touched. Gallery Category:People Category:Producers